Saints sink Dundee in Scottish Cup clash
In today’s Flashback, we look back at a Scottish Cup tie in January, 2017 ahead of St Mirren’s clash with Dundee this weekend.
St Mirren retain their tag as cup masters as they completed the upset of the weekend away to Dundee.
Goals from John Sutton and Jack Baird handed the Paisley side clear passage to the next round of the Scottish Cup despite the odds being stacked against them before a ball was even kicked.
But in truth it could have been even more as the Saints produced their best performance of the season so far to dominate their opponents for large spells of the game at Dens.
Jack Ross opted to hand first-team debuts to new signings Billy O’Brien and Pal Fjelde, while Stevie Mallan was involved despite a potential move to English Championship side Barnsley.
St Mirren gave a very good impression of a side in form in the opening exchanges, with the defence holding firm despite a lot of pressure from Dundee in the opening half.
Marcus Haber had the first real chance of the game when he cannoned an effort off of the post with just four minutes on the clock after loose marking around the box saw Tom Hateley slip in the striker.
But Saints were looking good on the counter attack and a slick move down the left flank between Fjelde and Kyle McAllister forced the Paisley side’s first corner of the game, but it was to come to nothing as Gary MacKenzie failed to get on the end of a Mallan delivery.
At the other end new keeper O’Brien was proving to be the real deal following his signing from Manchester City on Thursday.
The 22-year-old produced amazing heroics to palm Cammy Kerr’s goal-bound effort around the post, and he quickly dusted himself down to punch clear the resulting corner on 23 minutes.
His efforts were rewarded moments later as Sutton hit the target as the Buddies broke up the park. The ball simply broke to Sutton at the edge of the box and the experienced striker picked his spot before curling home a delightful strike into the bottom corner.
O’Brien was again at his best as he superbly tipped the ball over the bar from a vicious Craig Wighton strike after Faissal El Bakhtaoui’s throughball caught the Saints rearguard sleeping.
Haber should have then restored parity from the resulting corner but somehow managed to miss the target from four yards, with the goal at his mercy.
And the personal battle between Haber and O’Brien continued, with the keeper again getting the better of the striker with a fine blocking save.
The Buddies roared back into action in the second half and they were soon 2-0 up, with 48 minutes on the clock.
A Mallan corner broke back out to the midfielder as he took full advantage of a slip from Wighton.
He showed a quick flash of skill to round Wighton before cutting back an inch-perfect pass for Baird to smash home.
And it was so close to 3-0 moments later as another Mallan corner wreaked havoc before Morgan forced Bain to parry over the bar with an overhead kick.
Saints were still posing problems with 10 minutes left instead of trying to defend their lead.
A teasing ball across the box for Morgan came close to paying dividends but the Dee defence eventually scrambled clear.
A low drive from substitute David Clarkson was blocked behind for another Paisley corner, before Fjelde unleashed a vicious volley over the bar.
And despite a late flurry of action at the other end, the Buddies held strong much to the delight of the vocal away support.